If Melbourne Storm are to salvage something from an NRL season suddenly rendered points-less - as opposed to pointless - they must maintain the rage.

And on all the evidence at hand in their first match since the club were outed as serial salary cap cheats, the players - and the hardcore fans - are up for the fight.

In many ways, the Warriors were on a hiding to nothing at Etihad Stadium as the Storm came at them early and hard, playing with finals-like intensity.

It was no surprise that inspirational skipper Cameron Smith scored the opening try of the 40-6 victory, barging through the attempted tackles of four opponents.

Their second came from a player taking up much less of Melbourne's inflated salary cap - debutant winger Matt Duffie.

The points kept coming, with the Storm leading 20-0 at halftime before winning by 34, having played with the flair of a side which quite literally had nothing to lose.

Duffie, an unheralded former rugby player from New Zealand, finished the night with two tries and a hand in a couple of others.

In any other circumstances, it would have been the very definition of a dream debut.

And - salary cap shenanigans notwithstanding - it was a timely reminder of something else Melbourne have always done very well, spotting and developing young talent overlooked by other clubs.

"We believe in the Storm players. Sin bin the admin," read one banner draped across the Etihad Stadium fence.

"No Host (Plus), No Skins, No ME (Bank). No Worries. We R Here," read another banner in response to the many sponsors who had turned their back on the club since Thursday's extraordinary revelations of salary cap rorting.

The remaining logos on the hastily-redesigned Storm playing strip belonged to KooGa, Jayco and Suzuki, the latter two companies having increased their involvement with the club in the last 48 hours.

The impressive crowd of 23,906 often sounded like twice as many, so loudly did they cheer on the home side.

That made plenty of sense, for this was always going to be a night for the true believers.

"It doesn't matter if your team's last on the ladder, you still support them," said Liam Doherty from Seaford, a 13-year Storm member who attended the match with his father-in-law and three children.

"It's the only rugby league team we've got, we're going to support them.

"I think we've been crucified for things other teams are doing as well."

Fellow member Paul Robinson from Pascoe Vale also planned to stand by the team, even though they will be unable to claim any competition points in 2010, no matter how many times they finish ahead on the scoreboard.

"I'll still support them, as long as they try for their fans," he said.

"If they can stand up and stay in the competition, it will show Sydney and Queensland that we're stronger than they thought we'd be."

The Storm squad also enjoyed the support of many of Melbourne's best-ever former players including Tawera Nikau, Marcus Bai, and Glenn Lazarus, now their only premiership skipper after the club was stripped of the 2007 and 2009 titles.

The former greats attended the match at the request of another former captain Robbie Kearns, who now works in Melbourne's marketing department.

They saw a team playing and winning on raw emotion.

The big question now is - just how long can they keep it up?

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